Who’s on Obama’s Supreme Court short list?

DNA ruling leaves states to fill in the blanks

By Kimberly Atkins
Published: June 10, 2013
Tags: Criminal, U.S. Supreme Court

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Supreme Court ruling allowing police to collect DNA samples from arrestees before they are convicted, or even arraigned, could lead to a flood of legal challenges across the country as courts in states with differing laws on warrantless pre-conviction DNA sampling — or no laws at all — consider just how [...]

Ex-wife, not widow, gets death benefits

By Dolan Media Newswires
Published: June 10, 2013
Tags: Employment, Insurance, Supreme Court of Virginia News, U.S. Supreme Court

It’s fair to assume Warren Hillman never intended for the proceeds of his federal employee life insurance policy to go to his ex-wife when he died unexpectedly in 2008. But whatever Warren intended doesn’t matter. That’s because the U.S. Supreme Court has decided that the only thing that matters is that he did not change [...]

A trap for p.i. lawyers

By Correy E. Stephenson
Published: May 6, 2013
Tags: Employment, Federal Courts, U.S. Supreme Court

Personal injury lawyers whose clients have employee health benefit plans may want to pay attention to a new U.S. Supreme Court ERISA case, in order to protect their clients and themselves. The case creates a “window and a trap,” according to one plaintiff’s p.i. lawyer: Lawyers need to check current cases to protect their attorney’s [...]

DUI case could have impact on implied consent

By Correy E. Stephenson
Published: April 29, 2013
Tags: Constitutional, Criminal, DUI, U.S. Supreme Court

A U.S. Supreme Court decision addressing the constitutionality of blood draws from drunken driving suspects may have a limited effect in Virginia – for the time being. In the April 17 decision, which split the justices 5-4, the high court held that the natural breakdown of alcohol in the bloodstream does not automatically justify an [...]

Defense of employment claims may change

By Dolan Media Newswires
Published: March 11, 2013
Tags: Employment, U.S. Supreme Court

The U.S. Supreme Court is set to decide a case that may have a significant impact on how employers approach defending claims under multiple federal employment laws. The issue is one that may appear technical but nonetheless is significant for employers: The proper application of a recent Supreme Court decision and what an employee-plaintiff must [...]

U.S. justices question legality of warrantless DNA collection

By Kimberly Atkins
Published: February 27, 2013
Tags: Constitutional, Criminal, U.S. Supreme Court

WASHINGTON – As they grilled the lawyers arguing before them on the issue of whether police can collect DNA samples from unconvicted arrestees without a warrant, the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court acknowledged just how high the stakes are. “I think this is, perhaps, the most important criminal procedure case that this court has [...]

U.S. Supreme Court takes up sentencing factors case

By Kimberly Atkins
Published: January 22, 2013
Tags: Criminal, U.S. Supreme Court

Given the complexity of federal sentencing jurisprudence, it would not be surprising if the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court seem reluctant to shake up a sentencing scheme that Congress and the courts have relied upon for more than a decade. On Jan. 14, the court heard arguments in Alleyne v. U.S., a Virginia federal [...]

Man who killed fellow inmates executed

By The Associated Press
Published: January 18, 2013
Tags: Criminal, U.S. Supreme Court

JARRATT (AP) A man who strangled his prison cellmate and made good on a vow to continue killing if he wasn’t executed was put to death last Wednesday in Virginia’s electric chair. Robert Gleason Jr., 42, was pronounced dead at 9:08 p.m. at Greensville Correctional Center. He became the first inmate executed in the U.S. [...]

Supreme Court ponders who’s a ‘supervisor’ under Title VII

By Kimberly Atkins
Published: December 3, 2012
Tags: Employment, Federal Courts, U.S. Supreme Court

Employment lawyers across the country have been watching a case that questions whether a person who harasses a coworker can be liable as a “supervisor” under Title VII when the person has some supervisory responsibility, but cannot hire and fire for the position. But the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court who heard argument on [...]